Cookies By Design Closes After Unflattering Report

A Bethesda cookie store has closed after a local news station aired an unflattering report on its mice problems.

WUSA9 reporter Russ Ptacek, who does a regular segment in which he confronts owners of restaurants that have been shut down for health code violations, came to Cookies By Design (4913 Cordell Ave.) in Woodmont Triangle last month.

A voice recording at the store’s number said that after 17 years, Cookies By Design closed on March 30. The report was published on March 29.

The store, which blogger Robert Dyer first reported is closed, was shut down by Montgomery County because of mice but cleared for reopening upon a second inspection. In his report, Ptacek inspects the store himself and claims to find mice droppings that are “very soft” and “fresh.”

An unnamed Cookies By Design manager said she had only had two days to clean up.

“I’m doing the best I can,” she says.

Today the storefront is vacant.

Cookies By Design is a Texas-based national chain. Attempts to reach the shop owner and a representative of the national company were unsuccessful.